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Philippine president says he once stabbed a person to death

Ismael Spencer |Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Philippine president says he once stabbed a person to death

He is the last world leader to arrive for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Summit. But the Philippines is a major non-NATO ally, meaning it has special treaty status with the USA, and the relationship between the two countries dates back to the 19th century and the Spanish-American War, when the US took control of the islands from Spain. Duterte's scorched-earth campaign has reportedly claimed thousands of lives since 2016, drawing condemnation from human rights groups, global media and Western capitals. But as Trump was about to land on Friday, the White House announced no meeting would take place.

"He (Trump) said something about: 'You know, you handle it very well, '" he told reporters upon his arrival from Vietnam.

Tomorrow, Trump and Duterte are expected to hold bilateral talks. "Do not worry.' But as Chairman, I made it a tunnel for the communications to be active", Duterte said.

MANILA, Philippines President Donald Trump headed for home Tuesday following an extensive tour of Asia that he said had been "tremendously successful" and had put the world on notice that the "rules have changed" for countries that want to trade with the U.S.

Referring to the trade imbalance, Trump said he had frank discussions with Xi during his trip to Beijing on the subject and expressed his desire to "achieve a trading relationship that is conducted on a truly, fair and equal basis".

Within months, Duterte downgraded security ties with America, threatening to expel USA soldiers stationed in the Philippines and cancelling major war games in the contested South China Sea.

Towards the end of the meeting with Putin, Duterte divulged plans to appoint "a special envoy for military and to improve trade relations with Russian Federation".

Duterte often seeks to have visitors pose for photos with him doing the salute, with Chinese internet tycoon Jack Ma and Hollywood actor Steven Seagal among those pictured doing so.

Duterte is determined to show that even the United States president is behind him, while Trump is eager to display his personal diplomacy and ability to win back estranged allies.

When he came into office in June 2016, Duterte ordered the police and military to violently root out criminals and drug users and sellers, but instead of arrests and prosecutions, there were thousands of extrajudicial killings. Responding to the criticism, Mr Duterte recently moved to take his controversial drugs campaign out of direct control of the police.

Duterte might also expect support from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who struck the pose when the pair met in Tokyo past year.

Duterte won last year's presidential elections after promising to eradicate illegal drugs with an unprecedented crackdown that would see up to 100,000 people killed.

Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said it was hypocritical for the two to even discuss the topic given their tracklist of human rights violations.

Asean and China also highlighted the role of witnesses in identifying and prosecuting corruptors and said they would develop "an effective protection system for witnesses in corruption cases, where appropriate". Duterte, however, made it clear that he won't welcome any discussion on human rights lest he will tell the USA leader to "lay off".

Donald Trump has been caught in one of the most awkward moments of his presidency so far during a "family" photo at the start of a regional summit in the Philippines. "This is a different level of shamelessness, hypocrisy and pretense", Palabay said.

The Philippine president also said his government opted for Russian weapons because US weapons were harder to procure.